First Year - Novels
In Pieces Trinity Comprehensive Writing Group
Tuck Everlasting Nicole Babbitt
The Real Rebecca Anna Carey
Girl Stolen April Henry
Night John Gary Paulsen
Half the Man, Twice the Lawyer John Grisham
The Cay Theodore Taylor
Buddy Nigel Hinton
Skellig David Almond
Wonder R. J. Palacio
Artemis Fowl Eoin Colfer
Wilderness Roddy Doyle
Coraline Neil Gaiman
Girl Missing Sophie McKenzie
Private Peaceful Michael Morpurgo
Cirque du Freak Darren Shan
The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien
The Scarecrow and his Servant Philip Pullman
Skulduggery Pleasant Derek Landy
The Boy who Lost his Face Louis Sachar
Section 4 Page 1
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Second/Third Year Prescriptive Novels
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë
The Dare John Boyne
My Antonia Willa Cather
Once Morris Gleitzman
Lord of the Flies William Golding
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
The Wind Singer William Nicholson
Animal Farm George Orwell
Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Stone Cold Robert Swindells
Shadows on Our Skin Jennifer Johnson
The Knife of Never Letting Go Patrick Ness
True Grit Charles Portis
The Book of Lost Things John Connolly
Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman
Trash Andy Mulligan
Into the Grey Celine Kiernan
Chalk Line Jane Mitchell
The Weight of Water Sarah Crossan
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Prescriptive Plays
A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing William Shakespeare
Henry IV, Part 1 William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice William Shakespeare
West Side Story Arthur Laurents
Blood Brothers Willy Russell
Shadow of a Gunman Séan O’Casey
Warhorse Michael Morpurgo and Nick Stafford
The Woman in Black Susan Hill, Stephen Mallatratt
The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol
Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw
The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde
Alone it Stands John Breen
Lovers Brian Friel
Twelve Angry Men Reginald Rose
Section 4 Page 3
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Prescriptive Films
The Night of the Hunter Charles Laughton
Bend it Like Beckham Gurinder Chadha
Son of Rambo
Garth Jennings
Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni
Whale Rider
Niki Caro
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Benh Zeitlin
In America Jim Sheridan
E.T. Stephen Spielberg
Spirited Away Hayao Miyazakai
School of Rock Richard Linklater
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Some Suggested Documentaries
Spellbound
Jeffrey Blitz
March of the Penguins Luc Jacquet
Senna Asif Kapadia
Only When I Dance Beadie Finzi
Section 4 Page 5
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Some Suggested Short Films
Badly Drawn Roy Alan Shannon
The Herd Kevin Wardrop
Signs Vincent Gallagher
The Wonderful Story of Kelvin Kind Ian Power
My Strange Grandfather Dina Velikovskaya
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Do we need to reconceptualise the teaching of
the class novel?
What Was
In our intermediate and middle-year classes, the class novel has too often become
the backbone of the English program. Teaching a novel usually means analysis and
close examination of literary elements, such as the plot line, the author’s intent, and
literary techniques. A whole class novel is manageable. The same assignments
are used for everyone. Everyone is working at the same time, in the same place, at
the same pace. It is traditional. It takes up time.
We believe that the time has passed when one size fits all. One of the challenges
of today’s diverse classes is that, when a teacher chooses one novel for the entire
class, rarely can all the students actually read the novel. So the teacher, in an
attempt to include everyone in the discussions about the novel, reads it to them
chapter by chapter.
Two things then happen:
• a great deal of time is devoured.
• most students engage in almost no actual reading.
Neither of these results promote personal growth in reading. Nor do they create
conditions for developing an enthusiasm for and a love of reading. The more-able
readers are bored, the less-able readers are dormant.
What Can Be
We do believe that teaching a novel to the entire class is a worthy activity.
However, we have come to rely on a set of beliefs for this teaching:
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The novel study should take three to four weeks at a maximum, as there simply isn’t enough reading time for students otherwise.
The novel needs to be introduced in a way that sets up all students to want to read it and be more able to read it.
Not every chapter needs to be processed to the same depth; i.e., assigned a strategy, discussed, worked over.
Not every literary technique or comprehension strategy needs to be covered in every novel. Teachers choose a theme, a technique, or a focus, and address this in one novel, knowing that they can address other curriculum goals using another novel.
Students need to read independently as much as they can.
Comprehension questions, chapter by chapter, take up valuable time and teach nothing.
The purpose of a novel is to become engrossed in a good read, not to do
‘stuff’ like comprehension questions and book reports.
A whole-class novel is an appropriate time to introduce, teach, model, and practise a reading/thinking/ strategy that students can later use in their independent reading.
Student Diversity: Classroom strategies to meet the learning needs of all students. Fay Brownlie,
Catherine Feniak, Leyton Schnellert.
Section 4 Page 7
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Possible areas worth exploring…
1
Narrative Structure and Action
Some Approaches
Further Approaches
Pupils read the text aloud around the
class and you stop to summarise the
action.
Prepare a dramatised reading in
advance with one or two confident
pupils.
List the key events of the novel in a
ten-point plan.
How would you pitch the novel as a film
to a Hollywood executive? Sum up the
story in 30 words.
Discuss what we learn in Chapter
2 and how that has added new
information.
Write a brief summary of how the
novel ends.
Write an essay in which you compare
the opening of the novel with the way it
is represented in the film version.
Draw a storyboard of the main events
in each chapter and add a caption for
each one which sums up the action.
Section 4 Page 8
How could you turn the novel into a
poem of ten lines? Could each line
feature one key moment or event? Or a
series of interlinked poems?
Could the novel begin with the very
last paragraph? In pairs, compose the
first page of the novel, but working
backwards.
Possible areas worth exploring…
2
Characters
Some Approaches
Further Approaches
Draw a chart of the main character
noting down what he or she says, what
he does, what others say about him,
what he says about others, how others
behave towards him.
Set up a conscience corridor which the
main character (a pupil in role) walks
along with comments being spoken to
him / her as he / she passes.
Anna changes dramatically by the
end of the novel.’ Write an essay in
which you agree or disagree with this
statement, backing up what you say
with evidence and quotations.
We are going to ‘hot-seat’ the main
five characters. Prepare at least two
questions for each character.
Create a role on the wall; as we read
Chapters 3 to 5, add strips of paper
with adjectives about Anna to
describe her.
Write a diary from Anna’s mother’s
point of view which records what
happened in Chapter five, and how
she felt about it.
In your groups, divide up the
characters and look at Chapters 1 to
5 to identify key quotations for each
which tell us about the sort of person
they are. Then feed back to the rest of
the group.
Can you come up with three
provocative statements about Anna
which seem to go against what most
readers would think, and then defend
them as best you can?
Set up a hot-seat situation with three
Annas - Anna as a child before the
novel begins; Anna at the start of
the novel; Anna at the end. Prepare
questions for the three Annas. You can
go beyond the information in the text.
Write and perform a dramatic
monologue from the point of view of a
non-speaking or minor character who
appears in the novel.
Has anything about the way the main
character has developed taught you
anything about your own life? Write a
piece in which the main character lives
your life for a day.
Fishbowl Reading 1
Section 4 Page 9
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Resource Pack for Teachers of English
Possible areas worth exploring…
3
Themes, issues and ideas
Some Approaches
Further Approaches
What do you think the main themes,
issues or ideas of the novel are? Write
a response in which you explain your
point of view, supporting your ideas
with evidence and quotations.
As a class, prepare a television ’special’
on ‘Teenagers Today’, in which experts,
presenters and characters from the
book (as audience members or
‘witnesses’) discuss what happens.
How does the writer of the novel
deal with the theme of growing up,
compared with how the poet deals
with it in the Roger McGough poem
you read?
Write an extended dissertation in
which you discuss the representation of
fathers in the novel we have read, plus
four other texts (digital, non-fiction,
poetry, scripts…as you choose).
In pairs, prepare a short presentation
in which you explain the importance of
the theme of conflict within the text.
Prepare a proposal of 50 lines first,
saying which texts you intend to cover.
Re-design the cover of the book to
bring out a particular theme. Annotate
your design with comments explaining
your choices.
Do a card-sort in which particular
themes or issues are then matched
to chapters, characters and quotation
cards.
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Language
Some Approaches
Further Approaches
Here is the opening page of the novel.
How does the writer use language to
convey the wartime setting?
Here are some words and phrases
from the opening page of the novel.
Categorise them into nouns, adjectives
and verbs and, if possible, link them
together. Do you notice any particular
tone or feeling emerging? Now look at
the opening page . . .
On your own, jot down the two similes
and two metaphors used by the writer
on page 11. How do they add to our
understanding of David’s frame of
mind?
Write your own description of a
bombed-out street in London during
wartime.
Discuss with a partner how the writer
creates a feeling of suspense with her
use of short or abbreviated sentences
in the final two pages.
Use the image of a bombed street
to describe the aftermath of a house
party which has gone terribly wrong.
With a partner, prepare a rehearsed
reading of the final two pages in
which you bring out the suspense and
tension. Start by deciding who will
read which parts.
Fishbowl Reading 2
Source: The National Strategies - Secondary Key Leaflets ‘Teaching the Class Novel’
Section 4 Page 10
Section 4 Page 11
Material adapted from: The National Strategies | Secondary Key leaflet: “Teaching The Class Novel” .
Other (my own priorities).
Review the way reading is assessed with regard to the novel, and make changes as and if
needed.
Review the resources I/we have for teaching the novel – are they fit for purpose?
Analyse my own teaching plans: what part is the teaching of the class novel currently playing,
and might it be improved?
Evaluate the range and appropriateness of the novels on the Indicative and Prescriptive lists
Check whether there is an agreed departmental policy with regard to what novels should be
taught, when, and with what learning outcomes in mind.
Review and assess my own knowledge with regard to teaching approaches for the novel.
The Class Novel
Things to consider…
Possible Actions
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Section 4 Page 12